Community groups and MPs from around Gatwick Airport went to 10 Downing Street on Monday morning (May 16) to ask the Prime Minister: "What about our air quality?"

The visitors delivered a report to David Cameron about air quality issues affecting parts of Surrey and West Sussex around the airport, and their fears if Gatwick is awarded their bid for a second runway this summer.

Campaigners - including CAGNE (Communities Against Gatwick Noise Emissions) and GACC (Gatwick Area Conservation Campaign) - are concerned that infrastructure in the surrounding area is already inadequate and that traffic congestion is an additional major cause of air pollution on top of aircraft.

They claimed Gatwick Airport is positioned on "one of the worst railway lines in the country" which cannot be expanded due to physical restrictions.

In addition, Gatwick's key access road, the M23, is predicted to be full before any second runway would be completed and also leads to a congested M25.

“We have also objected to the Department for Transport drawing up plans for night flights at an expanded Gatwick, which would subject over 60,000 people in the Gatwick area to over 20 hours of continuous aircraft noise.

“It is incredible to think that the Department for Transport is contemplating this when the Airports Commission made a stronger case for Heathrow which included a clear and viable recommendation for a ban on night flights."

Mr Wingate said: “This is a desperate last throw from a project that has repeatedly failed. Heathrow’s air quality plans, for example, fail the most basic credibility test. You can't promise no more cars with a third runway and at the same time to propose to expand the M25 and plan to spend millions on parking.

“Heathrow has constantly failed the environmental tests and the public and politicians won't be fooled by yet more warm words which have been heard for decades.

“Rather than circling around a failed solution that will never happen, we should get on with something that can actually happen - only Gatwick can deliver for the UK. Heathrow can promise many things but they cannot wish away the reality of its location.

"An expanded Heathrow will newly impact hundreds of thousands of people currently not affected by aircraft noise - an expanded Gatwick would impact less than 3% of this number.

“Similarly, Heathrow breaches air quality legal limits today and a third runway can only make matters worse and would consequently be unlawful. Gatwick has established a track record of complying with all legal air quality limits and would continue to comply even with a second runway."